By Peter Bergman (MoneyAmped.com)
Bitcoin was the top-performing asset in the first quarter of 2023, according to newly published information on the cryptocurrency market by Coingecko.
BTC Forecasts Are Coming True
One bitcoin was expected to be valued at over $28,000 by March 31, 2023, up from over $17,000 on December 31, 2022. This expansion took place over three months. The research hints that the financial crisis-induced increase in volatility and Binance’s decision to withdraw a part of its zero-fee incentive program for Bitcoin transactions are connected to the asset’s current upswing.
The research also hints that the increased volatility brought on by the financial crisis may be the driving force for the recent resurgence of the crypto asset.
Bitcoin Outperforms Nasdaq and Gold
The Nasdaq and gold haven’t seen price increases like Bitcoin has. The value of one Bitcoin increased from less than $17,000 at the end of 2022 to more than $28,000 by the end of the first quarter of 2023.
Bitcoin’s value exceeds that of the Nasdaq and gold, according to the most recent survey of the cryptocurrency market by Coingecko. Because of this, Bitcoin’s value has risen to almost $30,000. Based on the research’s findings, Bitcoin is the best-performing support over the study period, with a quarterly growth rate of 72.4%.
The Nasdaq index and gold came in second and third, respectively, with increases of 15.7% and 8.4%.
Impressive Growth of Cryptocurrencies in January
The survey’s findings suggest that January was the turning point for Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market as a whole. However, the current condition of the banking industry in the United States may account for the increase in interest in this asset class.
Increased trading activity in January 2023 coincided with the start of a market rally. A brief surge in early March was blamed on the heightened volatility caused by the ongoing financial crisis, as stated by the Coingecko study.
This was the root reason for the market’s heightened uncertainty. However, by late March, the growth had already begun to decline. This drop coincided with Binance’s decision to end sure of its zero-fee trading incentives for BTC. Thus, it’s probable that this move was a contributing factor.
Not the Best Situation for Stablecoins
The first three months of this year were bleak for stablecoins, both in adoption and general interest. During the second quarter, this pattern remained unchanged. The research showed that the market value of stablecoins dropped by 4.5 percent, or around $6.5 billion. This was blamed on Paxos’s decision to shut down Binance USD (BUSD) and the brief de-pegging event in USD Coin (USDC) after the SVB crash.
The Positive Future of Defi
Market capitalization for decentralized finance (defi) hit $29.6 billion at the quarter’s end, according to data published by Coingecko. This is an impressive increase of 65.2% from the beginning of the quarter. There was a significant increase in the value of liquid staking governance tokens due to a 210.9% growth during the first quarter. Because of this, they’ve quickly become the third-largest subset of the decentralized finance sector.
Steady Growth of the NFT
From the fourth quarter of 2022 to the final quarter of the same year, trading volumes on non-fungible token (NFT) platforms rose from $2.1 billion to $4.5 billion. Findings suggest that Blur, which has just eclipsed Opensea as the dominant platform for NFT transactions, is the source of a significant portion of these values.
